Homestead Fair

One of our favorite holiday traditions in going to the Homestead Fair down by Waco. It is always so much fun and the food is fabulous!!! The exciting part of today was that Claire conquered her fears by wanting and actually getting on a horse!!! We were SOOO proud of her!! Cole rode one as well and were proud of him too.
I have to share with you the amazing food we had and shared today. FYI Homestead is a 100% sustainable farm so everything we ate was grown there. So we had - fresh pressed hot apple cider, apple cider donuts, I had a cheeseburger on fresh baked bun! Sweet potato fries, the kids had pizza, corn dog, sweet potato taquitos, onion rings, friend jalapeños, Michael had 2 steak tacos, sweet potato cheesecake, peanut butter pie, Cole had an oatmeal cookie and Claire had an enormous cinnamon roll! We also had fresh eggnog that was the best eggnog I have ever had - hands down!! We didn't actually eat all of the above food but tried a bite of each thing.

Parade of Lights

We decided to take the kids to the Fort Worth Parade of Lights on Friday night. We have decided 2 things after going for the first time - it is totally worth buying tickets for and when we buy tickets we will be able to enjoy the festivities instead of sitting in our spot for 2 1/2 hours!!!
It was such a fun night and we will be going back next year for sure!

Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was pretty low key. My aunt and her 2 boys, my grandparents, parents and siblings all enjoyed breakfast and lunch together. I made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for breakfast - they are AMAZING!!! Around noon Michael and I took my cousins and Claire and Cole to the park to run off some energy. We had an amazing lunch when we got home. After the Dallas game we headed to Michael's dad and Suzanne's house to help decorate their enormous tree!! It was a fun and long day and I am so thankful for our family we spent it with!

Work!

I have to do a post on my job this year.  Last year when we reached Thanksgiving break I was done!  I felt like we had been in school for 3 years instead of 3 months.  There were even times when I felt like working in some sort of other environment would be better than what I had spent 4 hard years getting a degree for.  Flash forward 1 short year.  We have arrived at Thanksgiving break and I am shocked!  I feel like we have just started school!  The first day was only a couple of weeks ago - not 12!  I am LOVING my job, LOVING my kids, LOVING the environment I am in and the people I am around.  I am blessed!  But, I am also very thankful I went through last year.  I honestly believe I lived out James 1:2-8 which says 
² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

 I feel like it took me until February to start doing verses 5 and 6 but I eventually got there. I honestly believe that I went through last year to give me perseverance so I could be mature in my faith. As I face new trials this year in different aspects of my life, I am excited because 1. I know that God will pull me through it (He promises this and He did it last year), 2. That I will develop even more perseverance! and 3. That my faith will grow because of it!   I am excited to see what all the Lord does in this next year!  

Thanksgiving Feast

Thursday, Claire had a Thanksgiving feast at school. Because I teach school, I normally do not get to be apart of their parties and such. But, this time it fell during my conference period. My principal even said I could be a couple of minutes late back to school so I could spend
time with my sweet girl!! I am so thankful I got to go! They did a cute little play and I got to sit with Claire and just talk with her for a while. I also snuck over to Cole's class to see him for a few minutes. He LOVES his teacher and really could have cared less that I was there! Ha!
And yes, Claire's costume looks like a giant bra. I didn't make it and giggled when I saw her!

Pilgrim Girl Claire

Performing their play

Halloween

Every year on Halloween we have our church's Fall Festival. This year, as our church becomes more community focused, we moved it to the Sunday before Halloween. With that being said, our kids have never been Trick-or-Treating!! We took the kids to my friend Cathy's neighborhood. We probably went to 18 houses and the kids were ready to go home. They had a lot of fun. Claire would run up to the house, ring the bell, say trick-or-treat and thank you! Cole would run up and scream trick or treating over and over again until the people opened the door, then he would say I love candies! And then thank you and walk away. He was cracking us up! We also realized that we never are around strangers so Cole doesn't see the danger in strangers and more than once tried to go in the houses. That boy!